Cleanaway Waste Management (Cleanaway) has opened a clinical waste treatment facility in Bridgewater, Tasmania.
The Bridgewater Health Services facility will handle medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare hazardous waste.
At peak capacity, it can process up to 2600 tonnes of waste per year.
It will gather clinical waste generated by a number of providers, including hospitals, pharmacies, aged care, pathology labs, dentists, veterinary practices, schools and universities, beauticians, childcare centres, maritime and infrastructure clients.
The company says the facility employs the use of an autoclave, a specialised pressure cooker that operates at temperatures and pressures ensuring the complete destruction of microorganisms, to process the waste.
“Compared with the traditional method of incineration to treat clinical waste, Bridgewater’s autoclave avoids the emission of dioxins and carbon,” Cleanaway’s CEO and managing director Mark Schubert says.
“We saw firsthand during the COVID pandemic just how essential clinical waste management services are. Without this vital service, hospitals and other health service providers can’t do their job.”
Cleanaway’s medical waste facilities in Australia
In addition to the new facility in Tasmania, Cleanaway also operates several other medical waste facilities across the country.
This includes an autoclave plant to process clinical waste in Bibra Lake, reportedly the only licensed facility of its kind in Western Australia.
Another of its facilities in New South Wales is located in Silverwater and processes sharps, clinical, cytotoxic, pharmaceutical and GMO waste.
Meanwhile, one of Cleanaway’s facilities in the Australian Capital Territory, located in Mitchell, also has an on-site autoclave for clinical and sharps waste, with certain waste streams sent to Silverwater after initial treatment.
Read more: Cleanaway opens state-of-the-art recycling facility in Sydney
